Another Time Another Place
by greyXghost
Summary: After years of finally getting on with his life and getting past what happened on Mindoir, Shepard now has to relive his most tragic moment that has changed his life forever, however its not only bad memories and sleepless nightmares that are keeping him on edge but old ghosts are starting to appear...will he ever learn the truth about what his father kept from his family?


Commander Alexander Shepard; born on Earth, in a city called "Los Angeles", at age 10 he and his family left Earth for a remote Colony near the Terminus system called "Mindoir" the planet was newly discovered by the Alliance, the Planet was not very well known which was perfect for his father who wanted to keep his son's biotics a secret from the Alliance fearing he would end up as their guinea pig which was as much as Alex suspected since he never really understood the full story on why his father moved their family to such an isolated planet the rest of the story is history but the details…well the details are far more interesting, but we will return shortly…

2183, the Commander now a man who just recently acquired the Normandy after backroom political dealings with Udina the Human Ambassador on the Citadel who put Admiral Anderson (it's former Captain) in early retirement and gave the newly elected Specter: Commander Shepard to run a manhunt on former Specter Saren, A Turian who recently attacked Eden Prime, a human settlement which housed ancient technology. The rest of you though should already know the story to this tale however the impactions to Shepard's past were never put on record. This is his side of the story…

The Normandy's crew had just left Noveria…the mission was a success but everyone felt a twinge of sadness for Liara, who had just cut down her own mother, she may seem to try and keep her emotions in check and tried to stay professional but how can anyone ever stay calm after killing their own mother in self-defense. Hours after what had happened she lay her head on her desk, sobbing, she looked through her luggage and found a picture of her mother; Benezia T'Soni who had her arm around her daughter after she had just graduated from College and had gotten her Doctorate…that was more than 20 years ago, to her however seemed like yesterday. Seeing the picture only brought up more pain and more sorrow to her heart she then took the picture frame and held it close to herself on her bed. There she laid in fetal position her tears soaking up the bed, until her door knocked, she couldn't hear it however as her sobbing blocked out the tapping sound, then a voice called out and said "Liara? Are you okay in there?" The voice belonged to Shepard who in the past couple of weeks had made friends with Liara ever since she came aboard the vessel. It wasn't his professionalism telling him to console her or even a lust to get in bed with her, he felt genuinely worried for a friend and it has been over 5 hours since she last spoke to anyone. "Is that you Commander?" she said as she wiped away her tears. She then tells him, "You can come in…" she said while sitting on her bed. Shepard opened the door and slowly came in. He walked over to the side of the bed and asked, "I'm sorry about what happened down there…"he said while putting his hand on her shoulder. She then felt very calm knowing that someone was there to listen to her, the pain then felt like it was slowly floating away by his very presence. She then said, "It's not your fault and it's what she wanted…She was…not herself but at least she said goodbye before she…passed" she was choking at the last word about to fall in to tears again, Shepard then said, "hey it's okay I know where you're coming from…I know what it's like when you feel like you've lost someone very important, but you get past that and say 'they would've wanted me to move on and be happy'" he said almost choking on his own words. She then remembered as he lost his friends and family on Mindoir many years ago when he was still just a teenager…she was then about to ask about his past but then felt she didn't want to see him in pain. "Thank you Shepard, I feel a bit better knowing I have someone to talk to." She said making a small smile to him, to whom he replied, "Liara, you can call me Alex…" he said smiling back, "Okay, thanks Alex" she then hugged him and after a long embrace she then said, "I always feel comfortable when you're around thanks for just being there." He then got up and left the room thinking she need more time alone…she then looked at Alex and was a bit disappointed that he didn't catch her flirtation she made as she held on to him for a bit longer than usual and as she rubbed her hands against his back and smelled him a little…he smelled a little bit like a faint cologne which kind of excited her, unfortunately for him though he was in lost in past pains in her embrace. This only brought back the pains of the whole colony burning with him at the center of it…he then went to his cabin with his head facing the floor…he then shut his door where Liara followed outside of her room across the hallway to his, where she stopped and peered and saw Alex's expression of sorrow as he walked into his room…she then put her hand over her mouth and briefly gasped, "oh no… by the goddess I'm such an fool!" the intercom then blared with Joker's voice and said, " We're closing in on the Citadel, ETA 10 minutes."

The crew is then all scattered around the Citadel, Garrus in the Wards, Tali and Wrex in the markets, where the old Krogan mercenary is teach the young Quarian a thing or two about bartering, and "persuading" the merchants to give them a better deal. Kaiden and Ashley are in the food courts trying to get a more decent meal with Alex and Liara tagging along, after what had happened between the two Alex was trying to find something to do to keep his mind of things, while Liara who is still grieving over her mother's lose, is now blaming herself for reminding Alex's painful past. "Umm would you like to eat something?" Liara asked Alex who was snapped back into reality, "sure umm what should we eat?" Alex then responded, "Have you ever tried Asari cuisine before?" to which Alex replied, "no" Liara then grabbed him around the arm and said, "Come on you'll love this great diner by the pet shop" she replied. The two made their way to a place called, Armalli Lean Cuisne with a cartoon-ish style of an Asari with big eyes winking in one eye and smiling. The menu seemed like any other human menu, Liara ordered a paste like mostaccioli except the sauce was green instead of red and there was some kind of fillet fish in the dish, where Alex timidly ordered the Grand Biotic Slam which was basically eggs with a small piece of steak and mashed potatoes, but to much of the Commander's dismay the eggs were red where the yolk was and the mashed potatoes were a dark orange(like sweet potatoes) however the steak seemed to be the only familiar thing, at first the Commander played with his food a little bit until Laira then said, "is the food under cooked for you?" to which he replied, " oh no…I was uh…about to just eat it" Alex then tried the mashed potatoes and to much his delight the potatoes were great even better than what he thought same thing with the eggs and steak they all tasted not only familiar but great really great. The two then spoke about each other and their people's customs and so on so forth. Until during a interspecies joke the Commander heard about told to Liara who laughed very hard and said, "That's not even funny" while laughing until Alex received a call from C-Sec , "Hello is this Commander Shepard?" To which Alex said, "Yes?" The C-Sec officer had a German accent and asked, "Sorry to bother you there's a woman here she was rescued from Batarian slavers a few weeks ago, she's from Mindoir, I guess she was taken in the raid of your town." To which Alex coldly replied, "You mean she was taken in the raid that killed my parents?" Liara then dropped her fork to the ground as soon as she heard Alex said, "…the raid that killed my parents" The C-Sec officer then responded, " Yes sir, sorry sir, she got free somehow and grabbed a gun from one of my guys , now hold up here in the docking bay…she uh…says she, 'wants to die' I'd hoped you'd talked to her , it's a long shot but you went through the same thing…the raid…I figured maybe you can talk her out of it." Alex took a deep breath and calmly bottled up all of his emotions and said calmly, "I'll be there as soon as I can."


End file.
